Is the mid-life crisis a myth? Research finds happiness increases as you age

Middle age is often associated with unhappiness – there's bills to pay, adult kids that won’t move out of home and weird aches and pains in places you never knew existed.

But research published in Developmental Psychology has found that, contrary to popular opinion, people actually become happier as they pass through middle age.

The finding contradicts previous studies, which indicate happiness in life follows a "U-curve". This curve is said to show an upward progression of happiness until middle age, where it stalls as we succumb to the pressures of adulthood and aging, only to rise again in old age.

The new research looked at data drawn from a 25-year longitudinal study by the University of Alberta that followed two cohorts of people as they aged.

Longitudinal studies, which follow the same subjects over long periods of time, are generally considered more valid than cross-sectional studies, which compare subjects who are at different stages of their life.

One cohort was a group of high school seniors whose happiness was tracked between the ages of 18 and 43. Researchers periodically asked them how happy they were with their life, on a scale of "not very happy" to "very happy".